Quarta No.5

Polish contemporary music magazine NO. 5(12), OCTOBER 2011 | ISSN 2080-4598

“I don’t like to be labelled” A conversation with

Marcel Chyrzyński

Photo: M. Filipczyk

by Katarzyna Marczak

CONTENTS: 1-4

5-7

Interview with Marcel CHYRZYŃSKI Witold SZALONEK – the portrait of an inventor

8-10 The inspiration of painting in the

music of Zygmunt KRAUZE

11-12 KISIELEWSKI and MIŁOSZ –

the extraordinary personalities

11

Made in Poland – Miłosz Sounds

13

KRZANOWSKI’s Symphony No. 1 premiered after 36 years

14

Symphony No. 3 by Paweł MYKIETYN blurs boundaries

M

arcel Chyrzyński describes himself as a ‘searching composer’.

He evades classification. He is consistently building his individual style based on a solid foundation of the Kraków Composers School, and at the same time he is flirting as an artist with successive inspiring styles and influences. In his writings you can find the compactness of opposites, playing with conventions and honesty of emotions. Where is Marcel heading to?

Do you write for the performers, the audience or simply for yourself?

I compose mainly for myself, because I feel the inner need. The performers, however, come to me and ask me to write the pieces for the particular instrument, or an ensemble. In such sense certainly I write also for them but when it comes just to the music I do not allow for any directions from the

quarta • October 2011

performer. I write whatever I feel and see fit.

I stay true to myself.

And how about the style? Do they ask for anything specific?

No. Sometimes I would make an association with, for example, jazz, as it happened in Tribute to Miles for trumpet and percussion, commissioned by the Institute of Art for the International Contemporary Chamber Music Competition. But the fact that I referred to Miles Davis was my choice, I got inspired by such ensemble to do so. Although, just recently a clarinetist Roman Widaszek, who plays my pieces a lot both himself and with his students, asked me to write something in a style of Three Preludes. They are still quite popular. However, I wrote the Preludes some twenty years ago so definitely I will not go back to the same style, but write something continued on page 2

{ editorial }

{ interview }

Dear Readers,

Composers of the second half of the 20th century, whose music, for various reasons, was rarely performed during their lives, like the underestimated Szalonek, or Kisielewski, known more for his writings than for his music, were often great artistic personalities, who happened to live in the wrong time or maybe in the wrong place, or perhaps just too short, like Krzanowski.

Against this background, we present Marcel Chyrzyński [khih-zhyn-skee], a peer of Paweł Mykietyn and Mikołaj Górecki. Once heard his works will long remain in your memory. Although they are still too poorely known given the talent of their author, they have gained recognition in many contemporary music festivals in Poland and abroad.

“We exist thanks to the otherness of the others,” as Kisielewski once said philosophically. This issue is full of artistic individualities, thanks to which the musical landscape of both Poland and the world can not be boring.

U.M.

ANNIVERSARIES 2012

Zbigniew BARGIELSKI b. 1937 Ryszard BUKOWSKI 1916-1987 Feliks JANIEWICZ 1762-1848 Tomasz KIESEWETTER 1911-1992 Wojciech KILAR b. 1932 Zygmunt KONIECZNY b. 1937 Andrzej KOSZEWSKI b. 1922 Bronius KUTAVIČIUS b. 1932 Juliusz ŁUCIUK b. 1927 Tadeusz MACHL 1922-2003 Tadeusz MAKLAKIEWICZ 1922-1996 Franciszek MIRECKI 1791-1862 Stanisław MONIUSZKO 1819-1872 Zygmunt MYCIELSKI 1907-1987 Konrad J. PAŁUBICKI 1910-1992 Karol SZYMANOWSKI 1882-1937 Henryk WARS 1902-1977 In July this year, PWM Edition signed a contract with the Internationale Musikverlage Hans Sikorski GmbH & Co. KG, becoming its official and sole representative for Poland.

Through a contract signed between PWM Edition and Dmitri Shostakovich Publishers (DSCH), PWM has also become the official and sole representative of Dmitri Shostakovich’s repertoire in Polish territory.

2

Photo: E. Chyrzyńska

Under the pretext of various anniversaries we again look back at the past. This time, QUARTA’s pages are dominated by the Polish music of the second half of the 20th century: the work of Witold Szalonek, Stefan Kisielewski, and the unistic music of Zygmunt Krauze. Yet, we deliberately present the music written several decades ago in the contemporary music magazin. It turns out that among the scores of the analog era, we keep finding real treasures. An example of this can be Andrzej Krzanowski’s Symphony No. 1 from 1975, played for the first time at this year’s ‘Warsaw Autumn’ festival.

continued from page 1

using the aesthetics I use now. On the other hand, recently I have been renouncing writing for clarinet as I had already written so much I already got a label of being a clarinetcomposer.

And I just wanted to thank you for those pieces in the name of all clarinetists! We like them a lot, they are great pieces to perform. We are just lucky that you are a clarinetist yourself as you know the instrument perfectly.

This is correct, it all started with Andrzej Krzanowski Composition Competitions in Bielsko-Biała, when I was still in high school.

Because I played clarinet, I knew very well the sound qualities and technical possibilities of the instrument. I decided to write a piece for clarinet solo for the first Competition, and a piece for clarinet and piano next year. I won both of them… and this made me decide to study composition.

But then I guess you do not have too many friends who play piano, nor strings? You wrote only one string quartet, and nothing for piano solo. Nobody inspired you? You did not feel the need?

You know, I think I just don’t have the right idea yet. There are so many piano pieces and it is very hard to write something at least partially original. Also, I would need to feel the inner urge for such a piece to happen…

How much do you want to control a performer?

Are you obsessive like Stockhausen, who wanted absolutely everything to be exactly how he intended, or do you trust the musicians?

I try to write my scores as precisely as possible so that a performer would have no doubts and would be able to play it the best he or she could. Of course, there is also interpretation. I am quite open in this matter, although there are still some boundaries. Once, a cellist was playing my ForMS… and I hated it.

This piece is very strictly designed and calculated almost mathematically; all the rests are assigned with seconds. Unfortunately, the

quarta • October 2011

performer played it very romantically ad libitum and everything got changed, the piece lost its sense. There are certain frames within which I accept a performer’s interpretation, but when you go too much outside, you end up with different aesthetics and different emotions, they are not mine.

Are you more ‘mathematic’ and calculated then, rather than romantic?

It depends. I am still a searching composer.

Of course, some elements are always present in my pieces, but there are also compositions that combine both objectivism and sensibility. For example, when I was at the Biennale in Venezia, I got inspired by a juxtaposition of European culture with Asian art. This is when I wrote Strade di Venezia, Streets of Venice. I got the idea of combining minimal music derived from New Age movement and rooted in Asian culture, with European twelve-tone technique. Those are two completely different worlds but I think this marriage was very interesting. I developed this idea also later on, in Dry Pieces for wind quintet. Both compositions are calculated mathematically but it doesn’t mean they lack emotions. They are just not romantic emotions. But there are also other pieces where I emphasise mainly affections, lyricism, melodics…

Maciek Jabłoński wrote: “Emotional side of Chyrzyński’s music, although quite straightforward, appears somewhat distant, as if the composer was avoiding excessive emotions and escaping from a danger of pathos.” Later on he also quotes Chłopicka, who characterises the Kraków composition school by “striving for systematization and a touch of classicism”. A calm and safe Neoclassicism without crazy avant-garde, do you agree?

It depends again on which pieces we are talking about. Piece for Orchestra is a composition where I refer to Symphony in C by Stravinsky and I dedicated this work to him. You can notice the neoclassical elements in there, indeed. However, I would rather say that my writing is… boy, I hate labelling myself! … it has more of the Neo-romanticism than Neoclassicism. Although again in my trio In C

{ interview } I also referred to Classicism. There is a fragment in this piece which is not a quote, but it is written in a style of late Haydn or early Mozart. This is a piece written for the sixtieth anniversary of Professor Marek Stachowski. Knowing his sense of humour and love for classical music of Mozart and Beethoven I decided to create a classical accent in my Musikalisches Opfer. Yet I wrote it so that it wouldn’t be a one-concert piece but could be performed at different concerts or festivals. In fact, In C has already been performed many times in Poland, Germany, USA, Japan and Canada. I managed to write a piece that is already in circulation.

Do you like humour in music? In C is a clear example of winking at the audience.

I do like it, although recently perhaps a bit less.

I think I’m getting old… But I wrote several pieces like this, for example Quasi Kwazi, Nju MoDeL, Überraschung Cfaj, or In C. For sure you like playing with words in the titles: ForMS..., Dry Pieces, Quasi Kwazi, Something Underground...

Quasi Kwazi I was written during the composition courses in Schwaz in Austria. I was working then with Professor Bogusław Schaeffer and I wanted to write something funny, hence the title. But then the second and third Quasi was written for Wojtek Komsta who was getting ready for Krzysztof Penderecki International Contemporary Chamber Music Competition.

I thought it would be good to extend the first piece adding the further movements and thus creating a cycle. The second Quasi was contrasting with the first, slow and cantilena-like, and the third is a summary of the cycle. It is the most expanded one, you can show off there with your technique and musicality… In this movement I introduced the lower microtonal trills that are enriching clarinet’s natural sound.

They work as the additional colours on the long notes. I used also microtones in Concerto 2000 for clarinet and orchestra, but they serve more functions there. Aside from the microtonal trills I introduced also microtonal mordents, appoggiatura and passing tones. In the finale of the first movement the whole melody is based on microtones.

Did you write it also for anyone in particular? I remember it was Janusz Antonik who performed the premiere.

I started working on the concerto for Wojtek Komsta, but then he left for the States and he didn’t have any opportunity to play it with an orchestra. This is why the piece was premiered

by Janusz Antonik, an excellent clarinetist whom I admire a lot. There is also a funny story with this performance. In the program of the concert there was my composition and also Ravel’s Bolero. After the concert, a friend of mine came and told me that she heard from her daughter, that had there been an encore, it should be my clarinet concerto. I beat Ravel’s Bolero!

Are there any your pieces that you love in particular?

I am very fond of Extended Perception of Echo for string orchestra, but the piece closest to my

heart is, I think, Ferragosto. This is a composition I wrote being inspired by a novel by Gustaw Herling-Grudziński called: Szczyt lata. Opowieść rzymska [A Peak of Summer. Rome Story – Ferragosto].

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EPERTOIRE ECOMMENDATIONS

Meditation No. 1 for saxophone & symphony orchestra (2011) sxf solo-3333-4331-batt (4 esec) ar pf-archi (16.12.9.8.6)

What is the story about? I associate the Italian Ferragosto mainly with a vacation and time off: a summer, a beach, the sun…

Grudziński wrote in the novel: “For me, the peak of a summer always was, is, and will be, until the world ceases to exist, a time of a solstice of our life and death.” It is all happening during the summer solstice night of August 15 and 16, the writer tells the tragic stories of people who decided to take away their lives.

He describes nine cases of suicides, with police reports, analysis of each event, reflections…

This narration moved me deeply, I could not stop thinking about it and I decided to express with my music the atmosphere of those events.

In any case, I do am fond of this piece because there is also a story behind it. I dedicated Ferragosto to Grudziński, of course. Later on, the piece was performed for example in Sydney at the concert ‘Dimensions of Time and Science’, and within the Kraków Composers’ Music Days festival, so I had a recording of it. When Herling-Grudziński came to Poland I had an opportunity to meet him. One day, we were at the dinner party at Józef Opalski’s and I played my piece for Grudziński. He listened to it carefully and he said – it was the biggest compliment for me – that I expressed the atmosphere perfectly and he can feel the vibes of Ferragosto in my composition. Unfortunately, Grudziński passed away but I am very happy that I had a chance to meet him and I am honoured that he had mentioned me in his Diaries.

You also write a lot for theatre.

I started my flirtation with theatre two years after my University, this is when I began to work with Bartosz Szydłowski. First, it was his graduation performance at the Theatre University and we did God’s Words by Ramon del Valle-Inclan in Słowacki Theatre. Later, Bartek founded his own off-theatre “Łaźnia” at Paulińska Street in Kazimierz. I practically worked with him on all the plays in there. My cooperation with Bartek (currently a director of “Łaźnia Nowa” theatre) is very successful as he chooses contemporary plays and I never wanted to write for classical theatre. Soon there will be another premiere under his direction, with my music. It is a play by Mateusz Pakuła Wejście smoka. Trailer.

Is theatre helping you with the classical music, or is it distracting?

I started to write theatre music also because I found it an interesting experience that would enrich my creative space. I thought I might use it in the future, as I was planning to write a multi-media opera with both acoustic instruments and the electronics. But I haven’t found a text yet that would inspire me enough to write it. I have also been quite busy lately and I had to put this project aside for the time.

15’30” (unpubl., not yet premiered) Concerto 2000 for clarinet & orchestra (2000) cl solo-3333-4221-batt (3esec) ar pf-archi

26’ Premiere: 9 March 2001, Kraków J. Antonik, Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra, T. Bugaj (cond.)

Extended Perception of Echo for string orchestra (1992) 0000-0000-archi (8.8.8.8.4 ossia 6.6.5.4.4)

7’ Premiere: 17 Jan 1993, Kraków Orchestra of the Academy of Music in Kraków, R.J. Delekta (cond.)

Ferragosto per tromba, pianoforte e batteria (1997), 17’ Premiere: 8 June 1998, Kraków B. Matusik (trumpet), P. Grodecki (piano), Cracow Percussion Group, S. Welanyk (cond.)

1st Prize in the T. Baird Composers’ Competition in Warsaw in 1997.

In C for clarinet, viola (violoncello) & piano (1996) 6’ Premiere: 17 April 1996, Kraków W. Komsta (clarinet), M. Ferens (viola), T. Chmiel (piano) Cat. no. 9925 Reflection No.1 for string quartet (2003), 8’ Premiere: 21 August 2003, Stockholm Amar Corde String Quartet Cat. no. 10420 Reflection No.2 for harpsichord (2005), 4’30” Cat. no. 11100 Three Preludes for clarinet & piano (1990), 3’30” Cat. no. 10271 1st Prize in the A. Krzanowski Composers’ Competition in Bielsko-Biała in 1990.

ForMS... for violoncello solo (2001), 7’ Cat. no. 10262 Quasi Kwazi I-III for clarinet solo (1994; 1997; 1998) 2’45”; 4’45”; 7’ Cat. Nos. 9768; 9828; 9870 Beelden for amplified blockflute, harpsichord & tape (2006), 15’ Premiere: 10 Nov. 2008, Kraków The Roentgen Connection (unpubl.)

continued on page 4

quarta • October 2011

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{ news }

National Edition of the Works of Fryderyk Chopin Concerts and lectures in Europe and China PWM Edition and the Foundation for the National Edition of the Works of Fryderyk Chopin begin the European lecture and concert tour to present and promote the most recent Polish National Edition of the complete works of Fryderyk Chopin, established by Professor Jan Ekier.

The lecture tour is to promote the first Polish critical edition of Chopin’s complete works based on the entire body of available sources and analysed with the latest methodology. The National Edition is recommended for study to the contestants of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. Lectures will be given by Professor Paweł Kamiński, editor of the edition and an eminent specialist in the methodology of the analysis of Chopin’s manuscripts and other sources.

The lectures have already been delivered in the United States, Canada, Japan, Spain and Switzerland and now we are taking them to London, Paris and Madrid.

Schedule of the meetings: Oct. 9th, 2011 / London / Westminster Cathedral Hall Nov. 3rd, 2011 / Paris / Bibliothèque Polonaise à Paris Nov. 4th, 2011/ Madrid / Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid The lectures will be followed by chamber concerts with outstanding Polish artists: Jan Krzysztof Broja (piano), Andrzej Bauer (cello), Jakub Jakowicz (violin), who will perform Chopin’s Polonaise Op. 3, Grand Duo Concertant, Sonate Op. 65, and Trio Op. 8.

Schedule of the tour of China: Dec. 2nd / Changchun / Music College of Northeast Normal University Dec. 4th / Chengdu / Sichuan Conservatory of Music Dec. 6th / Shanghai / Shanghai Conservatory of Music Dec. 8th / Beijing / Capital Normal University College of Music Dec. 9th / Beijing / China Central Conservatory of Music The lectures in China will be followed by a piano recital by Mischa Kozłowski and Marek Bracha.

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{ interview } continued from page 3

Has this song been published?

And what are you listening to for your own pleasure?

No, I have just finished it. I plan to compose a couple of more songs and then publish the whole cycle.

Traditional Japanese music performed by Yamato Ensemble, together with Rachmaninov’s first and second piano concertos, and Brandemburg Concertos and Goldberg Variations by Bach.

To relax or to get inspired?

In case of Bach and traditional Japanese music this is music that calms me down. Rachmaninov’s concertos get me excited because they are all made of emotions and have this wonderful, complex harmony, and the long phrases modulating so beautifully….

Does it translate then into your music? Your style?

I try to calm down recently in my music as well. I have been fascinated by the Far East culture for many years now, especially by Japan. I listen a lot to Yamato Ensemble and Tajima Tadashi; a Japanese master of shakuhachi, he was even called in Japan ‘Nation’s Living Treasure’. You can hear Japanese influences in my Haiku from 1991, and just recently I wrote two other pieces. The first one is a concerto for saxophone Meditation No. 1. I plan to compose a cycle of concertos with orchestra. Even the name indicates much calmer, meditative music, which is an obvious Japanese influence, and more precisely: an inspiration by Toshio Hosokawa’s music. The other piece is a song for mezzosoprano and cello Fuyu no sakura with the lyrics of a Japanese poet Shinkawa Kazue.

The title means: ‘Cherries blossoming in the winter’. It is almost entirely written in a style of a traditional Japanese music, I used there the traditional Japanese scales. “... If you are one verse of a song, I want to be its refrain. If you are a round lemon, I want to be its image in a mirror. This is how I want to live in your eyes in peace...” This is a beautiful lyric. But still an unconventional project, I would say.

The most brave and original thing in this song is treating cello like a shamisen, since we are rather used to a very lyrical cello, that is ‘singing’ with the long phrases. This will be lacking in my song. Just at the very end there is a low-note bourdon played arco, together with a left-hand pizzicato; all the rest is being played with a guitar pick, just like you play shamisen with a plectrum.

Aren’t you afraid that it would be a piece for a limited number of performers because of the use of the Japanese language?

No. Although the text is written in hiragana (traditional Japanese alphabet), there is also a rōmaji translation, which is a phonetic notation with Latin alphabet. So the performers will be able to sing it with no problems.

Especially since it really is an easy language in terms of pronunciation. And above all, there is a Polish and English translation in the score.

quarta • October 2011

Where did it start at all, your Japanese fascination?

My fascination in the Far East goes back to the beginning of my University and listening to the throat singing of Tibetan Monks. First, I heard Mirosław Rajkowski singing this way on ‘Audio Art’ Festival in Kraków and later I found the original recordings of the monks.

After many years I also became interested in Japanese culture, especially music, literature, paintings and cinema; and in the last two years I have been fascinated by nihonto – samurai swords and weaponry. Look here, the biggest one you see here is called tachi, and this is katana, this is wakizashi, and that one is tantō, a short stabbing sword used for a ritual seppuku; and here you have tsuba, samurai sword guards. They are true pieces of art. Look how gorgeous they are…

(September 2011) Transl. K. Marczak

More about the Composer at: www.chyrzynski.com www.pwm.com.pl/chyrzynski

MARCEL CHYRZYŃSKI [khih-zhyn-skee] was born in Częstochowa, in 1971. He studied at the Academy of Music in Kraków: composition with Prof.

Marek Stachowski, orchestration with Prof. Krzysztof Penderecki and computer music with Marek Chołoniewski, Richard Boulanger, Cindy McTee and Rodney Oaks. He also took part in numerous courses in Poland and abroad. He is an associated professor at the Academy of Music in Kraków. In 1998 he received his doctorate degree in composition, and completed his habilitation in 2010.

He was awarded in numerous composition competitions: for Ferragosto per tromba, pianoforte e batteria in the T. Baird Composition Competition for Young Composers in Warsaw in 1997 (1st prize), and for Piece for Orchestra in the Composers’ Competition organised by Polish Radio in Warsaw in 1996 (distinction) among others.

His works have been performed in many countries of Europe, as well as in the USA, Canada, Australia, Russia, Japan, and South Korea, at such faestivals as the ‘Warsaw Autumn’ Festival (1996), FIU Music Festival in Miami (2000), ‘Musica Nova’ Festival in Helsinki (2000), The International Festival of Contemporary Music ‘Contrasts’ in Lviv (2002), International Contemporary Music Festival ‘The New Music Scene’ of Prishtina in Kosovo (2003), 4th Festival International de musique en Catalogne in Céret in France (2004), Cadaqués International Festival of Music in Spain (2004), Festival of Polish Music in Kraków (2005, 2006), ‘UltraSchall’ Festival für neue Musik in Berlin (2006), ‘Sounds New’ Contemporary Music Festival in Canterbury (2009), ZXZW Festival in Tilburg in the Netherlands (2007, 2010), and ‘Focus Music’ Festival in New York (2011), and many others. His composition Extended Perception of Echo represented Polish contemporary music at the International Fair Midem Classique 2000 in Cannes.

Along with concert music he writes incidental music for the theatre.

{ portrait } On the 10th anniversary of the death of Witold Szalonek

Inside? Outside? In between Suspended between the traditional and the modern, between music for professionals and for amateurs, between composing and teaching, and finally, between Silesia and foreign culture – Witold Szalonek was an artist full of contradictions.

Daniel Cichy

JUST SONORISM?

Legend has it, that the impulse for searching for tone colour effects came from an unsuccessful concert performed at the Academy of Music in Katowice, at which a clarinettist could not control his instrument and instead of impressing all with a dignified musical phrase treated the audience to a series of unnerving squeaks. But perhaps truth lies elsewhere? Maybe it was Silesia, its industrial sonosphere – chimneys exhaling smoke, the metallic song of mineshafts, the hissing and banging of blast furnaces, the loud gambol of loading cranes and the screams of trains coming to a halt – that stimulated the creative imagination?

The output of Witold Szalonek is mostly thought of as music of great sonoristic value.

Rightly so, since the composer was one of the first and most determined explorers of new sound, and invented new and original ways of sound articulation. His imaginative treatment of instruments was unmatched, he was unmatched in re-inventing them, so to speak, perceiving their purpose in an nontraditional way. With every piece he entered new letters into the alphabet of innovative performance techniques, instantly absorbed by others. The difference being that Szalonek’s ambition was, unlike that of many apologists of the avant-garde, to go beyond an experiment being just an experiment, beyond an empty gadget which would function as an attractive ornament, shocking to a traditionally oriented public. To him, sound was perceived as an independent entity. Due to his intense interest in non-European cul-

Photo: PWM archive

T

hough his musical idiom was one of the most radical in its aesthetics, at home he listened to Chopin. He was not attracted to the electronic medium, but the sound effects he concocted shocked audiences even more. He hadn’t written an opera, though he was fascinated by the idea of theatralised music. He loved experimenting, but drew upon folk music just as willingly.

He expected performers to have mastered complicated articulation techniques, yet in his catalogue of works we find pieces meant for amateur ensembles. He wholeheartedly engaged in composition, at the same time fulfilling his passion for teaching. Finally, though he felt Polish and Silesian he set on living in Berlin and for close to four decades suffered from the immigrant condition….

ture he considered it an example of a magical power and primary elements. Influenced by the writings of Claude Levi-Strauss, he though sound to be the main ingredient of the ritual metaphysical experience, a medium for countless shades of emotion and non-musical content. In compositional practice sound had form-building potential, releasing energy and artistic creativity.

– politone structures commonly used today, which were obtained on wind instruments by using special fingerings and controlled overblowing – but also codify their notation. However, he did so only at the beginning of the 70s, following the advice of Otto Tomek, a friend of many Polish composers and head of the contemporary music department of the Westdeutcher Rundfunk at the

Szalonek’s ambition was, unlike that of many apologists of the avant-garde, to go beyond an experiment being just an experiment, beyond an empty gadget which would function as an attractive ornament, shocking to a traditionally oriented public When discovering unknown tone color possibilities, Szalonek was considerably aided by musicians – the famous flautist Severino Gazzelloni, for whom the Concertino for flute and chamber orchestra was composed (1960-1962), the oboist Edward Mandera, the addressee of the Quattro Monologhi for solo oboe (1966), Zdzisław Piernik, a tuba player, to whom Piernikiana of 1977 were dedicated, as well as the violinist Mirosław Kondracki who participated in the writing of 1+1+1+1 (1969) and harpist Urszula Mazur, the first ever to perform Szalonek’s Three sketches for solo harp (1972). Thanks to many hours of discussion with musicians the composer could not only catalogue the available combined tones, as he called them

quarta • October 2011

time, who was afraid that someone will claim Szalonek’s achievements as their own. As it turned out, the article published in “Res Facta” magazine (Unused sonorostic value of woodwind instruments) (1972/7) came too late. Five years earlier, independent discoveries in the field of combined tones were summarized by the Italian composer and music theoretician, Bruno Bartolozzi. However Szalonek’s proposal was very different, much more intuitive and implemented the idea of ‘notation of action’ more fully, and therefore is preferred by performers and composers today. The first composition in which the ideas rooted in the modernism of the Second Avant-garde continued on page 6

5

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EPERTOIRE ECOMMENDATIONS

L’hautbois mon amour for oboe, strings, 2 harps and percussion (1999), 23’ ob solo-0000-0000-batt 2ar-archi

Premiere: 18 Sept 1999, ‘Warsaw Autumn’ K. Dawidek, Radio Kamerorkest Hilversum, P. Eotvos (cond.)

Little Symphony B-A-C-H for piano & orchestra (1981), 24’ pf solo-2010-4330-batt (3esec) 2ar pf-archi

Premiere: 26 March 1985, Poznań A. Tatarski, Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra, R. Czajkowski (cond.)

Musica concertante for double bass & orchestra (1977), 27’ cb solo-3333-4330-batt (4esec) ar pf-archi

Premiere: 20 Sept 1977, ‘Warsaw Autumn’ B. Turetzky, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, W. Michniewski (cond.)

Wyznania [Confessions], triptych for reciting voice, choir & chamber orchestra (1960), 10’ Rec-coro misto-1100(+cl.b. cfg)-1110-batt-archi (3.3.3.2)

Text: K. Iłłakowiczówna Premiere: 17 Sept 1959, ‘Warsaw Autumn’ (part. I and III); 6 July 1960, Darmstadt, ‘Tage für Neue Musik’ Silesian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Choir, A. Markowski (cond.), F. Delekta (Rec.); Sinfonieorchester und Chor des Hessischen Rundfunks, S. Ehrling (cond.), W. Ray (Rec.) Moeck Verlag Connections for chamber orchestra (1972), 14’ 1110-1000-pf-archi (1.1.1.1.0 ossia 1.0.1.1.1)

Premiere: 23 Sept 1972, Bergisch-Schlesische Musiktage Ensemble “trial and error” (Cologne), W. Szalonek (cond.)

Les sons for symphony orchestra (1965), 10’ 4444-6441-batt (4esec) 2pf-archi (0.0.8.0.8)

Premiere: 30 Sept 1965, ‘Warsaw Autumn’ Orkiestra Filharmonii Śląskiej, K. Stryja (cond.)

Mutazioni for chamber orchestra (1966), 15’ 2222-2220-batt (4esec) pf (cel)-archi

Premiere: 25 June 1969, Hamburg Südwestfunk-Orchester Baden-Baden, E. Bour (cond.)

Concertino for flute & chamber orchestra (1962), 16’ fl solo-0121-1111-batt (3esec) cel ar-archi (6.0.3.2.1)

Premiere: 22 Sept 1963, ‘Warsaw Autumn’ S. Gazzelloni, Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, J. Krenz (cond.)

Improvisations sonoristiques for clarinet, trombone, cello & piano (1968), 10’ Premiere: 22 Feb 1968, London Warsztat Muzyczny: C. Pałkowski, E. Borowiak, W. Gałązka, Z. Krauze Cat. no. 6933 Bagattellae di Dahlem II for flute & piano (1998), 17’ Cat. no. 10079 Agnesissimo-Africanissimo for marimba (2001), 17’ Cat. no. 10195

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{ portrait } continued from page 5

were fully developed were the Confessions for spoken voice, mixed choir and chamber orchestra. It was based on excerpts from the poetry of Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna, a favourite of many Polish composers and premiered during the ‘Warsaw Autumn’ festival in 1959, though without the middle section of the triptych. Wolfgang Steinecke, the charismatic director of The International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt was present at the concert and proposed to have the whole work performed in Darmstadt the following year. Due to difficulties with obtaining a passport, Szalonek hadn’t made it to Darmstadt on time, but the work, with its extremely interesting structure and refined relationship between the text and sound, with elements of dodecaphony, punctualistic texture and non-traditional vocal techniques was a success with the western audience and critique.

Soon, Witold Szalonek was counted among the foremost representatives of the Polish School of Composition. His status of prominent representative of the avant-garde was confirmed by the Concertino for the flute, in which the balance between the linear disposition of material, determined pitch and thick, clustery sonoristic texture was masterly maintained. Not only had the composer widely employed twelve-tone technique, but also considerably extended the range of tone-colour. Moreover, aleatoric regulation played an important part in constructing the narration of sound. Furthermore, he undertook the problem of spatiality – the specific arrangement of the ensemble, the entrusting of specific parts according to the seating plan of the instruments in the orchestra, causing movement of tones along semi-circles, the crossing of acoustic impulses, and competing of instrumental groups in the spirit of a baroque concerto – all intriguing. Similar elements, gradually developed, among which we find the new faces of sonoristic effects, aleatory technique of performance applied both to larger and smaller sections of the score as well as variability of the ‘cast’ of instruments (in 1+1+1+1) as well as form (Quattro Monologhi, 1966), are also employed in the orchestral Les Sons (1965), Mutazioni for chamber orchestra (1966), Mutanza for solo piano (1968) and Connections (1972).

AESTHETIC SUSPENSION

Though the middle period in the artistic output of Witold Szalonek is brimming with innovative compositional means, in his early years of creativity and in the works from his last two decades he finds inspiration in folk music and early music. Initially, the young artist was not only under the influence of Bolesław Woytowicz, a professor of composition, but was also fascinated by the works of Karol Szymanowski and the neo-classical musical fashion of the time. Thus, Szalonek turned to ancient form structures and genres – the suite and the classic sonata which he filled with ingenious variations on Silesian, Kurpian and highlander folk themes. He happily fed upon urban songs in Tough hands for mixed choir and piano (1953), the Silesian

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folk ballad (1953) and Katowice ballad (1964) for solo soprano and mixed choir and drew from indigenous folk songs in such choral works as O Jasiowej Kasi (1953) and Opolski (1964) as well as the Kurpian Suite for solo alto and 9 instruments (1955).

Near the end of his life Witold Szalonek returned to the inspirations of his youthful years, treating his elaborate sonoristic idiom and elements of highlander music equally.

An eminent example of works rooted in tradition, which manifest an affiliation with values long forgotten in the 20th century are Inside?-Outside? for bass clarinet and string quartet (1987) and the monumental Symphony of Rituals for string quartet (1991-1996).

They are exceptional pieces in Szalonek’s opus, employing interval constructivism and dynamic rhythms enhanced by vivid tone colour effects and allusions to highlander folk motifs. These compositions are an act of faith in the power of music, in a ritual catharsis of the audience, in pulling the listener into a game of cultural associations. The great energy value of both works, the scope of the material used and formal discipline, resulted in premieres of the works becoming great artistic events. Such was the case of the Symphony of Rituals, after which the audience stood up in an immediate, spontaneous and long standing ovation honouring the composer, less than a year after his death.

Within the composer’s output there is one very exceptional work, the Symphony B-A-C-H for piano a variable orchestra (19791981). Dedicated to Pope John Paul II in an act of disagreement to the events of December 1981, it is a tribute to one of the greatest composers in history and Szalonek’s first significant religious declaration. It contains the motifs from the so-called visiting card of J.S. Bach and the chorale Christ ist erstanden, covered in almost romantic expression, and its main idea is the juxtaposition, as the composer himself had said of ‘contemplative’ and ‘Beethoven-style’ time. Here, he makes a reference to the more and more popular attitude of honouring the aesthetic of the New Romantic on part of the younger generation.

Such is the case of the oboe concerto created two decades later, L’hautbois mon amour (1999), in which the melodic and emotional factor plays an important part.

But besides referencing Bach, classical and romantic music Szalonek – despite his interest in exotic culture – greatly valued the legacy of European art music. He was especially aware of how the works of Frederic Chopin and Claude Debussy were fundamental in understanding colour in music. He devoted a few important academic appearances to these two figures and even planned to write a dissertation on Chopin.

Witold Szalonek 1+1+1+1 ver. for violin and violoncello; 1+1+1+1 ver. for string quartet; Symphony of Rituals “Hommage à Karol Szymanowski” Silesian String Quartet Polskie Radio Katowice PRK 058, 2003

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{ portrait } Another group of compositions drawing from both the traditional and the modern are his theatralised works. The biographical cycle on the character of Medusa, the unfortunate antiquity heroine with snakes instead of hair starts with the Head of Medusa for recorders (1992). It was followed by Medusa’s dream of Pegasus for flute and horn (1997) as well as Poseidon and Medusa for flute quartet and hand cymbals (2001). Humorous works, charming and ambitiously illustrative include the amusing Gerard Hoffnung’s Six Unpublished drawings for saxophone quartet.

Here Szalonek aptly translated the satirical drawing of the famous artist, depicting important persons and events of the musical world, into sound.

PERSONAL SUSPENSION

Witold Szalonek was a multi-dimensional author, a composer only seemingly easy to classify. He was a complex character, torn between a consciousness of his talent and an awareness of the aesthetic rejection of his art. He was adored for his teaching talent, but as a composer, he was treated with reservation. He was the one to take over the celebrated Boris Blacher’s composition class at the Hochschule der Künste in West Berlin, though among his competitors for the position were such names as Erhard Karkoschka, Ladislav Kupkovič and Helmut Lachenmann.

However, he took all rejections by repertoire committees at contemporary music festivals,

of which he endured many, very personally.

Hardly surprising, since the creation of each of his eighty scores cost him great effort, he obsessively perfected every detail until physical and creative exhaustion.

The psychological trauma and internal imbalance was deepened by a growing feeling of isolation. Berlin, which was to be his gateway to an international career, turned out to be his curse. Every year after his immigration in 1973 brought on an increase in the sense of suspension between his native Silesia and noisy Berlin, where despite many friends he felt a stranger until his death there. It is enough to say that until 1981 he travelled from Berlin to Katowice every two weeks to meet with Polish students. His attempts at working through his issues of patriotic longing, constant redefining of his cultural identity and constituting a new sense of belonging to a nation yielded nothing but short term results.

He was born on March 2nd, 1927 in Czechowice-Dziedzice. He spent his childhood in the Łagiewniki district of Bytom. He passed away in Berlin on the 12th of October, 2001, after a prolonged illness. He died among those close to him, at home, where he escaped a day earlier fearing a solitary hospital death. He was buried in BytomŁagiewniki, thus having returned to where it all started...

Transl. J. Trafas

On the 10th anniversary of Witold Szalonek’s death, the Avantegarde Orchestra of the Wrocław Music Academy, Sound Factory Orchestra promotes the work of the composer. The ensemble recorded Szalonek’s pieces and performed them at a concert in Berlin.

“He is a really forgotten composer, because to perform his pieces well, you must have a lot of courage. In Szalonek you play on different elements of the instrument, making very unconventional sounds. Another difficulty is the reception of this music. A person listening to it needs to move to that reality, get used to it and see all the beauty it contains” – says Robert Kurdybacha, conductor of the orchestra and the initiator of the “Rescued From Oblivion – Witold Szalonek and his Sounds Combined” project.

The project is realised by the Music Academy in Wrocław as part of the ‘Polish Presidency 2011’ programme. The first part was the recording of a CD with pieces by Witold Szalonek by Sound Factory Orchestra. “I am anxious to popularize Szalonek’s work. Even if it is popularity from the scene, it’s important that people will

Photo: family archive

Szalonek and the Sound Factory

Music and Astronomy Kilar’s Lumen in Brussels Wojciech Kilar’s new piece, Lumen for a cappella choir, composed on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the birth of Johannes Hevelius, had its premiere in the European Parliament in Brussels.

In Poland, 2011 has been declared the ‘Year of Johannes Hevelius’ (1611-1687), called by some the ‘Polish Leonardo da Vinci’, a prominent astronomer and author of such works as Selenographia, Cometographia, Machinae coelestis, Prodromus astronomiae and Firmamentum Sobiescianum. Wojciech Kilar’s piece was written to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Polish astronomer’s birth, on commission from the Polish Chamber Choir of Gdańsk, who gave the premiere under the baton of Jan Łukaszewski.

The concert took place in the Yehudi Menuhin Hall in the European Parliament, on October 5th this year. The composition lasts about 5 minutes and is written to fragments of Psalm 136 with Polish text.

The concert was accompanied by an exhibition devoted to the Gdańsk astronomer, and a display of a pulsar clock, the most modern and most accurate in the world. This is an invention by scientists from the Nicolaus Copernicus University Centre for Astronomy in Toruń, and a continuation of the work of Hevelius.

Transl. L. Davidson

Witold Szalonek in his apartment in Berlin, in the 90’s

reach for the disc” – says Kurdybacha in an interview with Magdalena Talik. There will be a concert on October 12, exactly the tenth anniversary of the composer’s death, at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, which is the second part of the project. The programme includes the pieces Mutazioni, Connections, Pastorale, L’hautbois mon amour and pieces composed specially for the occasion and dedicated to the outstanding creator by Robert Kurdybacha, Krystian Kiełb and a Berlin student of Szalonek – Andreas Behrendt. Kazimierz Dawidek, one of Europe’s most ostanding oboists, performs with Sound Factory Orchestra. Wrocław artist Paweł Lisek complements the whole with visuals.

The project partners are PWM Edition, Europäische Oboen-Schule and Andreas Behrendt, artistic director of the ‘LehninerSommermusiken’ festival.

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Johannes Hevelius and his wife Elisabetha Koopman Hevelius shown using a sextant to make astronomical observations, 1673, engraving by Andrzej Stech and Isaak Saal (from Johannes Hevelius Machinae coelestis)

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The Unistic Music of Zygmunt Krauze Youthful fascination with Władysław Strzemiński’s unism lies in the genesis of Krauze’s unistic music. Unism painting was derived from the dogma of the originality of the image plane as a fact that required consistent development. Filling the canvas surface with uncontrasted colour or a fine pattern results in an abstract, unified whole. The texture of Krauze’s tonal works and Strzemiński’s unistic texture paintings Kompozycje unistyczne [Unistic Compositions] have far-reaching similarities. Auditory experience is confirmed through looking at Krauze’s scores: ‘granular’ ornamental groups are sound points in the spatial layout and in the projection, free but statistically aligned states and densities.

Krzysztof Szwajgier

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wo basic dimensions of a musical work: the width of register and duration define the final shape of Krauze’s pieces. The vertical dimension of pitch and horizontal dimension of events in time function in the music in an analogical manner to the limitation of vertical and horizontal framework of Strzemiński’s images. Both in visual arts and in music, essentialist works contain the idea of universality (also in a literal sense, as an all-encompassing project).

Each unistic image reproducing (potentially ad infinitum) an adopted detail, may also be a fragment, starting material for further unlimited spatial expansiveness. This is also the case with Krauze’s music; a piece, despite the pitch dimension remaining contained within the limits of our hearing, in the sphere of time, becomes a project of infinite duration.

Zygmunt Krauze spent his childhood and youth in Łódź, one of the cities in which the people driven out of Warsaw took refuge after the war and where he the composer was born (b. 19 Sept 1938). The city was alive then with the legend, carried by eye-wintesses, of Władysław Strzemiński, radical painter, uncompromising in his views, escapee from the Soviet Union, accused of Communism before the war, and hounded by the Communists after the war, the creator of Unism. While still a student, Zygmunt Krauze attempted to establish his own compositional technique that took into account the presence of unistic ideas. The unistic pieces from his mature period (1963-1972) were composed with the knowledge of having a language adequate to express the intended purpose.

Born in 1893 near Minsk and died in Łódź in 1952, Władysław Strzemiński was one of the main representatives of the Constructivist avant-garde. The environment of the Russian futurists and constructivists shaped

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Strzemiński’s style and artistic views for his whole life. The influence of Kazimierz Malewicz, the founder of Suprematism, whom Strzemiński befriended and whom he unsuccessfully tried to assist in obtaining Polish citizenship was also highly significant.

In Poland, Władysław Strzemiński developed an unsually active occupation as a painter, teacher, theorist and propagator of new art. The basic assumption of unistic painting, developed by him from the early ‘20s, was mainly founded on the idea of uniform filling of the painting space, deprived of highlighted points. Strzemiński himself in the text Unizm w malarstwie [Unism in Painting] explained his intentions mainly in negative terms – as a quest for absence of tension, characteristic of the post-baroque convention: The dualistic concept should be replaced by the unistic concept. Not the pathos of dramatic explosions, not the size of the force, but the picture, as organic as nature [...] Every square centimetre of the image is equally valuable and equally participates in the construction of the image. Ejecting a certain part of an image while ignoring others, is not justified. The surface of the image is uniform, so the intensity of the form should be distributed uniformly.

In the interpretation of Julian Przyboś, a poet closely cooperating with Strzemiński, (essay Nowatorstwo Strzemińskiego [Strzemiński’s Innovation]) unism was: ... the absolute rejection of any illusionism in the image. A rectangle of painted canvas did not recall any associations with anything existing, none of the forms distinguished themselves or pulled themselves out of the layer of other forms, nor from the frame of the picture. If we compare the abstractionists’

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images with the unistics’ compositions – we are struck by glaring differences in the way of understanding the picture. Abstract compositions distinguish forms, there is a drama of contrasts of form among them and expression of their responsibilities. There is no such thing in the unistic picture. In this a perfect union forms with each other and the rectangle of the canvas.

Practical realization of this idea has become a series of paintings in which the painting space is evenly filled with a kind of adopted uniform forms, built of small elements. Each of the constituent particles shows individual, small differences in relation to the others.

The idea from painting to evenly fill the image plane can not be literally or automatically moved into the area of music. As far as the concept of ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ can intuitively be regarded as close to what is considered to be the upper and lower picture frame, and the upper and lower limits of pitch range of sounds, the possibility of free formation of time in music makes it difficult to find direct analogies in the painting ‘easel’.

Among the characteristics common to both the fields of painting and music the most important in both unisms turns out to be textural properties. Already at first contact – auditory or visual – with unistic works of art in both areas it can be seen that they are monotextural. One may even assert that unistic technique depends upon filling the work area with a collection of tiny elements in order to obtain a uniform, but tailored in detail, whole. The manner in which we receive this kind of form will depend largely on our insight; we may gear ourselves to contemplation of the whole area (painting or sound) as a textural whole or to focus on its components, and on finding small deviations from the model.

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Władysław Strzemiński, Museum of Art in Łódź: a. Unistic Composition No. 13, 1934, oil, 50x50 cm; b. Unistic Composition No. 11, 1930-32, oil, 50x38 cm

The time dimension in which music moves carries with itself numerous consequences. The composer, on account of the impossibility of taking an exact model of the typical spatial idea of painting through sound created, through experience and gradual improvements, an autonomous musical version of unism. He wrote: I demand calm and organization from my music. Its sound should have enough character to take the form of an individual that can be differentiated from the chaos of other music and other sounds. Performing a piece of music signifies ordering, tidying time. It separates from the chaos of human activity and the chaos of sounds surrounding people a certain section with a defined structure.

These tendencies in my music are realised in a form devoid of contrasts, the most uniform possible. All impulses, changes and actions needed to sustain the movement of the music do not bring in new elements, are not contrasted.

That which the listener will meet in the first few seconds of the piece – this will last till the end. The beginning of the composition immediately exposes the whole scale of sounds and during the piece nothing alien will appear, nothing new. There will be no surprises.

Władysław Strzemiński, Museum of Art in Łódź: Unistic Composition No. 8, 1931, oil, 60x36 cm;

I prefer if the recipient can listen to the various details and fragments of music, instead of being attacked by sequences of attractions, changes and surprises. This music is discrete.

It does not attack the listener. The listener is

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placed in an active role: he just listen to the fragments of music and these details, which appeal to him. He chooses, because getting to know this music is easy, and therefore he knows what he may encounter. He also knows that if some particular fragment has disappeared, it will certainly return.

Such a form without contrast, has neither a beginning nor an end in its essence. The piece can be interrupted at any point in its duration and does not change its basic characteristics. It can also have an undefined duration.

This music includes the possibility of being received differently. The ideal situation would be one in which the music would constantly be played and the listener would come at a time convenient for himself and leave at the moment, that he would consider appropriate.

Since the strongest element binding both domains, art and music, has proven to be texture of the work, the analogy between musical notation and the presentation of paintings becomes apparent, especially in the manner of using space.

The basic corpus of unistic musical works, which Zygmunt Krauze created during the 1960s: • Pięć kompozycji unistycznych [Five Unistic Compositions] for piano (1963) • Triptych for piano (1964) • Esquisse for piano (1967) • Polichromia for clarinet, trombone, piano and cello (1968) continued on page 10

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EPERTOIRE ECOMMENDATIONS

Piece for Orchestra No. 1 (1969) 4444-6431-archi (7.6.5.4.3)

8’ Premiere: 19 Feb 1970, Wrocław Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra, T. Strugała (cond.)

PWM / Universal Edition Piece for Orchestra No. 2 (1970) 2222-2220-archi (9.7.5.5.3)

10’ Premiere: 21 March 1974, Berlin Sender Freies Berlin Orchestra, A. Markowski (cond.)

PWM / Moeck Verlag Voices for 15 optional instruments (1972), 9’-27’ fl c.i. sxf cl b. cfg-cor crnt sous tb-vbf xlf org (el.) pf ar-cb

a.

b.

Premiere: 6 March 1974, Berlin Gruppe ‘Neue Music’, G. Humel (cond.)

PWM / Universal Edition

a. W. Strzemiński: Unistic Composition No. 9, 1931, oil, 48x32 cm; b. Z. Krauze: Voices, the first page of the score

Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy, opera (2004), 90’ 6MS 3T 1Bar 1B solo-Att-coro-2222-2210-batt cel acc pf ar chit

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el.-archi

Premiere: 20 Nov 2004, Theatre Sylvia Monfort, Paris (concert ver.); 30 Sept 2006 National Opera, Warsaw (staged) K. Preis, M. Barylak, J. Cortes, A. Dąbrowska, K. Kur, M. Ledzion, D. Machej, P. Łykowski, A. Ruciński, A. Zdunikowski, Polish Radio Orchestra, A. Straszyński (cond.), M. Weiss-Grzesiński (dir.)

Voyage de Chopin for chamber choir a cappella or with ensemble of folk instruments (2010), 18’ Premiere: 12 June 2010, National Opera, Warsaw Camerata Silesia, Warsztat Muzyczny, A. Szostak (cond.)

Cat. no. 11157 (a cappella) Work commissioned by the Orange Foundation and Polish Institute in Paris for the Chopin Year 2010 celebrations.

Letters Concerto for 4 pianos and orchestra (2010), 20’ 4 pf solo-2222-2220-acc-archi (7.6.5.4.3)

Premiere: 17 Sept 2010, ‘Warsaw Autumn’ A. Górecka, M. Lisak, I. Mironiuk, M. Walentynowicz, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, R. de Leeuw (cond.)

Hymn for Tolerance for orchestra (2007), 13’ 3333-4330-batt(2esec)-archi (12.12.10.8.6)

Premiere: 15 Sept 2008, Jerusalem Camerata Orchestra, A. Biron (cond.)

Work composed for the ceremony of unveiling of the Statue of Tolerance in Jerusalem.

Ball in the Opera for chamber choir & 12 instruments (2006), 80’ coro misto 2sax2tr-chit fis-batt(2esec)-pf-2vni cb

Text: J. Tuwim Premiere: 10 Sept 2006, Łódź Schola Cantorum Gedanensis, Łódź Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble, J. Łukaszewski (cond.)

Five Unistic Pieces for piano (1963), 6’ Cat. no. 6042 Pour El for solo harpsichord (2011), 7’30” Cat. no. 11185

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• Kompozycja przestrzenno-muzyczna Nr 1 [Spatial Composition No. 1] for 6 tapes (1968) • Piece for Orchestra No. 1 (1969) • Kompozycja przestrzenno-muzyczna Nr 2 for 2 tapes (1970) • String Quartet No. 2 (1970) • Piece for Orchestra No. 2 (1970) • Voices for 15 voices (1968-1972) In these works one can see many common features as derivatives of special unistic compositional technique. The system of unistic music aims at building a textural monolith, woven with a limited number of simple elements.

This music “is singular, uniform, homogeneous. It is deliberately deprived of the energy of development, dynamic narrative, expressive drama, conflicts and contrasts, plays of tension and discharge, relaxation. But here one should make an important caveat; it is ‘deprived’ of those surprises and diversions to a scale to which our ears have for years become accustomed. Indeed (and this is a very strong impression), this is ‘standing’ music, static, music, which primarily IS, LASTS, unhurriedly filling the time, and does not BECOME, aim towards some goal somewhere.

This music is not evolving, does not culminate, is not a multistage process. Here the musical thought does not develop, does not modify, does not appear in various guises (rhythmic, harmonic, textural), does not depend on the art of working out, because here ‘musical thought’ generally, in the sense of an isolated motif, a catchable phrase, as we have become accustomed to capture this element of form, is simply not here. However, with the delicate fabric of inter-woven lines and group-blocks of thoughtfully and imaginatively chosen instruments, here pulses an internal, hidden, but rich life...” wrote Krystyna Tarnawska-Kaczorowska.

In Krauze, meditation on the passing of time is serious, and the music itself deprived of assistance for the listener. Krauze’s works are distinguished from the parallel trend of

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minimalist music by aperiodicity, a lack of repetition, the absence of pulse and rhythmic pattern, narrowing melicus, and atonal harmony. They last, and that continuing demands attention. The unistic flow of sound shimmers with irregular variability. It draws in and is hypnotic. It does not impose itself, it leaves the recipient free. It leaves the listener – after the completion of the whole – with a question about the essence of what he heard.

Zygmunt Krauze’s purely unistic pieces form only part of his rich oeuvre. At the beginning of the 1970s he decided to break with unism, Krauze entered a stage of exploration of new means of expression. It started from joining heterophony with the technique of collage, reaching for foreign material, most frequently folk, and placing it in the dense texture of unsynchorinized operations.

The importance of Zygmunt Krauze’s composing achievements go beyond the area of Polish music. He is also an important figure in the broader meaning. First of all, the existence of musical Unism – in parallel, and in many aspects ahead of the wave minimalist music – is a kind of historiosophical confirmation of developmental changes in the nature of art, independent of contact between artists. The manner of transfer of inspiration from painting to music, is far from the shallowness of many of such creative approaches on the borders of art. The steadfastness of the composer in the cultivation and development of the basic resources of music – from the first to the last piece – as determinants of their own style is impressive. The characteristics of this style also display in some way the personality traits of the composer, through which the music becomes a kind of private statement. Through his personal musical manner Zygmunt Krauze conveys some truth about the essence of the times in which we live.

Transl. J. Trafas

More about the composer at: www.pwm.com.pl/krauze www.zygmuntkrauze.com

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Czesław Miłosz and Stefan Kisielewski, Stockholm, 1980

Photo: S. Lindblom

extraordinary personalities, extraordinary friendship

Daniel Wierzejski

A DEAR GINGER MONKEY

We saw each other quite often during the time of the German occupation. One could say that my wife, fond of drinking vodka with him, and I ,were quite close with Kisiel – my particular sentiment for him exploding on the day of my birthday, 30th June, in 1943 or 1944 when Kisielewski came to call on us and after a few vodkas I began strangling him in a way that scared him. I suppose that my habit of calling him ‘a dear ginger monkey’

Made in Poland – Miłosz Sounds Composers’ tribute to Czesław Miłosz Kraków 11-16 September The project ‘Made in Poland – Miłosz Sounds’ was one of the most awaited musical events in the Year of Miłosz 2011. Five young, accomplished composers of contemporary music: Agata Zubel, Aleksandra Gryka, Jagoda Szmytka, Paweł Mykietyn and Wojciech Ziemowit Zych were invited to write works inspired by texts written by the Polish Nobel Laureate Czesław Miłosz.

Five world premieres in masterly interpretations were performed during this year’s ‘Sacrum Profanum’ festival in Kraków. Excellent contemporary music ensembles of international renown were invited to take part in the project: Asko|Schönberg, Ensem-

dates back to that time.1 – thus Czesław Miłosz recalls the beginnings of his acquaintance with Stefan Kisielewski AKA Kisiel2 – an uneasy, long and stormy relationship. On the 100th birthday of both Stefan Kisielewski (1911-1991) and Czesław Miłosz (1911-2004) we recall these two figures, both of great importance, endowed with talent and vast erudition, and bound by genuine friendship.

Stefan Kisielewski, due to his extensive and widespread interests and scope of activity in many spheres of cultural and social life, could easily be considered a Renessaince man. By education he was to be a composer, pianist and musical theorist, but deep down inside he was an avid writer, author of fourteen novels published under various pseudonyms. Professionally, he mainly worked as a journalist and was unmatched columnist, (publishing more than 2000 essays), but also a valued music critic, teacher, thinker, as well an active politician. Most importantly, he was perceived as a sort of mainstay of normality and common sense during times when the fumes of communism submerged ble Modern, Alarm Will Sound, Klangforum Wien and Bang on a Can All-Stars.

The concerts were broadcast by Polish Radio Channel 2 to countries that are members of the EBU (European Broadcasting Union).

They were also recorded by the National Audiovisual Institute and prepared for release in the form of CD / DVD.

Agata Zubel Aphorisms on Miłosz “Miłosz’s art, so difficult in artistic interpretation, turns out to be excellent material to create an outstanding, attention-grabbing aura. In fact, the composer used Miłosz’s poems and fragments in a fairly conventional way – the verbal elements are combined with notes and sound effects. And yet, thanks to a simple but well-used resource – silence – the author has managed to create a unique mystery of poetry and music. In addition to poignant and very meaningful moments of silence, an important form-building element was the repetition of key words and phrases. In the context of subdued, sublime sonic fabric these means have managed to work fully and convincingly. The com-

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THE UNKNOWN FACE OF THE SCRIBE

As a composer (author to over a hundred works, mostly instrumental) Kisielewski mainly kept to the neo-classical style, in its aesthetics close to Stravinsky and Prokofiev.

His Danse vive, Concerto for Chamber Orchestra, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, and String Quartet are excellent examples of this.

Starting in the 1970s, his music grows more and more dissonant and stronger in expression, this especially being the case in his late compositions, such as: Symfonia w kwadracie [Symphony in a square], Perpetuum Mobile or Cosmos I. Nonetheless, his musical output lay forgotten for many years, and Kisielewski was more famous for his journalism and his unwavering ethical stance. This jubilee year resulted in bringing on many performances of his works at anniversary concerts, exhibitions and conferences, uncovering his hitherto unknown face – that of a talented composer. A characteristic trait within the music of Stefan Kisielewski, which constitutes its originality and is constantly repeated and emphasized by all those researching or analyzing his musical opus is the specific idiom of humour, musical joke, irony, and playful mischief.

LITERARY SPIRITUAL FATHER

Czesław Miłosz, though he initially trained to be lawyer, devoted himself to litearature. He is considered one of the greatest Polish poets of the second half of the 20th century, a superb prosaist, essayist, historian of literature, and furthermore, an outstanding translator of Hebrew and English texts, continued on page 12

Photo: W. Wandzel

Kisielewski and Miłosz

all areas of life in Poland. He was the only official oppositionist, as he liked to call himself, and for many Poles he was an authority and a guide to keeping one’s dignity and live honestly within a totalitarian system.

Agata Zubel and Klangforum Wien at the 9th Sacrum Profanum Festival, Kraków 2011 poser avoided excess by reducing the number of sound effects, and making fuller use of those that she has applied. In contrast to Zubel’s fairly typical aesthetic of textural dissociation, Aphorisms created an impression of musical coherence. Most of the sounds connected with each other in a seamless narrative whole, underlining the importance of text and highlighting the significance of the words.”

Maciej Jabłoński, “Dwutygodnik”no. 65/2011 Transl. J. Trafas

11

R

EPERTOIRE ECOMMENDATIONS

Concerto for chamber orchestra (1949), 14’ 1211-0000-archi

Premiere: 1951, Kraków Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra, W. Krzemieński (cond.)

Cosmos I for symphony orchestra (1970), 8’ 3332-4331-batt (5esec) pf-archi

Premiere: 19 Nov 1971, Warsaw Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, A. Markowski (cond.)

Symfonia w kwadracie [Symphony in a square] (1978), 22’ 3333-4331-batt (5esec)-archi

Premiere: 1 April 1981, Poznań Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra, R. Czajkowski (cond.)

Dialogues for 14 instruments (1970), 9’ 2211-2220-archi (1.1.1.1.1)

Premiere: April 1972, Poznań Poznań Philharmonic Ensemble, J. Roehl (cond.)

Spotkania na pustyni / Rencontres dans un désert for 10 performers (1969), 12’ 1011-0110-batt (2esec)-archi (1.0.0.1.1)

Premiere: 28 April 1971, Poznań Poznań Philharmonic Ensemble, A. Duczmal (cond.)

Piano Concerto (1980, 1991), 17’ pf solo-2221-2230-batt (4esec)-archi (6.4.0.2.1)

Premiere: 24 Sept 1991, ‘Warsaw Autumn’ M. Drewnowski, Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra, J. Swoboda (cond.)

Podróż w czasie / Le voyage dans le temps for string orchestra (1965), 8’ Premiere: Nov 1974 Rzeszów Philharmonic Orchestra, S. Michałek (cond.)

Divertimento for flute and chamber orchestra (1964), 7’ fl solo-0121-1110-batt (2esec) ar-archi

Premiere: 13 March 1964, Warsaw Kraków Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, A. Markowski (cond.)

Symphony for 15 performers (1961), 16’ 2111-1110-batt (2esec)-archi (1.1.1.1.1)

Premiere: 18 Oct 1963, Katowice Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra Perpetuum mobile for symphony orchestra (1954), 3’ 2222-4230-batt (4esec) pf

Premiere: 17 Oct 1958, Bydgoszcz Pomeranian Philharmonic Orchestra, R. Tynsky (cond.)

Trzy sceny burzliwe [Three tempestuous scenes] (1983), 14’ for piano Cat. no. 8676 String Quartet (1935), 20’ Premiere: 3 April 1965, Poznań M. Paszkiet, S. Rydzewski, J. Młodziejowski, T. Egejman Cat. no. 8772

12

{ personality } continued from page 11

among others. During his immigration years he taught literature at UC Berkeley and Harvard University and he is a winner of the Nobel Prize in Litearature (1980). Kisielewski and Miłosz got to know each other well in Nazi-occupied Warsaw during WW II. It was Miłosz who encouraged Kisiel to write and it was him who, as the agent of the prosperous publisher Władysław Ryńca, bought Sprzysiężenie [Conspiracy], Kisielewski’s first novel from him and recommended it. At the time, Ryńca was buying up newly written novels as an investment for the future, with the intention of publishing them after the war. Miłosz stated: “...I hadn’t expected Kisiel to be so twisted (...) the idea itself is brilliant: the protagonist is cured from impotence by the war, ending all normality – and his Poland too. What symbolism.”3 Kisielewski had never forgotten this.

Miłosz was a kind of literary spiritual father to me. A very bright man, great poet. – he recalled with gratitude – Unfortunately, he left, immigrated. This was partly my wife’s fault, as I wasn’t there when he happened to visit Kraków (at the time, he was a diplomat in the US). My wife asked him whether or not he was scared of being detained here. “What do you mean, are you saying that things like that really happen?” he asked. “Why of course, it’s entirely possible.” He got so scared, that he immediately left for Warsaw, where he ran into Putrament, who said “Oh, you know, we have other plans for you. I don’t think you’ll be going back.” So then he got furious, as his wife was pregnant, in New York. He knew it would end badly.4

“SURNAME ON RECORD”

Thanks to an acquaintance, who happened to be the minister of foreign affairs and vouched that he will return, Czesław Miłosz was able to immigrate to the USA and stayed there until the fall of communism in Poland.

Kisielewski, on the other hand, stayed behind in the home country, condemned to battling social realism in all its absurdity.

His beliefs cost him dearly. Because of his critique of Poland’s communist government at a Literary Association meeting in March of 1968, in which he used the famous expression which could be translated as ‘a dictatorship of dimwits’ he was publicly denounced by the First Secretary of the Communist Party, Władysław Gomułka, who seemed to have taken the ‘dimwit’ quite personally.

Soon after, Kisielewski was brutally assaulted by so-called ‘unknown attackers’ and was completely banned from publishing. No one could perform or publish his compositions, no one could employ him.

These difficultiess are recalled by Mieczysław Tomaszewski, one of the long-time Heads of PWM Edition [Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne] in an interview: With Kisielewski, it varied – at times it was all right to publish him, and at times it wasn’t. (...)

Often these things were difficult, especially after 1949 and 1968, but at other times as well. Every time I wanted to draw up a contract with an author, I had to have permission from the ministry of culture, and indirectly, from the Party’s Cen-

quarta • October 2011

tral Committee. For a time, there was a registry of unwanted texts and compositions, Kisiel was prohibited, both his older works as well as the new, unpublished ones. (...) Having one’s surname ‘on the Record’ meant complete absence – even in books by other authors, in dictionaries, lexicons, concert guides. However, we adopted a policy, and here I’d like to emphasize that none of the PWM Editors were members of the Communist Party, that we would act as if there actually wasn’t any censorship. The greatest achievement of the system was getting writers and publishing houses to act as censors unto themselves. We counted on the censor falling asleep, overlooking something. And they often did.5 When Czesław Miłosz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980, he invited Stefan Kisielewski to join him at the awards ceremony in Stockholm, thus wanting to show his appreciation for the man, honour him and show him off to the world. It is then, at the banquet given by the King of Sweden, that their most famous photo was taken – they were immortalised at the height of a duel which was to decide which one of them could make the absolutely most hideous facial expression possible.... The two authors, despite the geographical distance, did meet occasionally which often ended up in stormy discussion. They often disagreed, especially when it came to politics in Poland, but had great respect for each other.

Kisielewski always stood up to defend Miłosz when he was criticised in Poland.

Kisielewski did compose a few vocal works, and of them his Songs for Voice and Piano are best known, having been composed to lyrics by another celebrated Polish poet, Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński, however, he never did set any of his friend’s poetry to music. Instead, he dedicated a novel to him – Zbrodnia w dzielnicy Północnej [Murder in the Northern Quarter], published in Paris under the pseudonym Teodor Klon, since in Poland, his politically incorrect books could no longer come out in print and Miłosz’s name was diligently crossed out from Kisiel’s books and other writing.

Kisiel had the luck of living long in enough to see the fall of communism in Poland. After his death in 1991, Czesław Miłosz bid his friend farewell in the following words: You were quite a character: back in the twenties and thirties, during the socialist times and now in the Third Republic. You travelled through history ‘never straying from the path of honour’, which is rare, and many should envy you. Farewell , you, who were always so full of mirthful energy that the gates of the land of shadows have trouble shutting behind you.6 Transl: J. Trafas

1

2

3 4 5

6

Kochana ruda małpa. Joanna Pruszyńska talks to Stefan Kisielewski, in: Kisiel, Warsaw 1997, p. 153.

Kisiel is a popular Polish dessert, something in between fruit soup and jelly.

M. Urbanek, Kisielewscy, Warsaw 2006, p. 149.

S. Kisielewski, Abecadło Kisiela, Warsaw 1990.

I w muzyce był swój własny. Joanna Pruszyńska talks to Stefan Kisielewski, in: Kisiel, op. cit. p. 259.

Kochana ruda małpa..., op. cit., p. 259.

{ news }

Premiere After 36 Years Andrzej Krzanowski’s Symphony No. 1

Andrzej Krzanowski (1951-1990), who was presented in the previous issue of Quarta, completed the work in April 1975.

It consists of three extensive movements.

Each of them has surprising and innovative compositional solutions and sonic effects.

The composer used a huge instrumentation, where apart from strings, quadruple woodwind, six horns and two tubas he used five accordions, two pianos, three saxophones, an electric guitar and widely expanded percussion section.

Dutch conductor Lucas Vis undertook the preparation work together with the Warsaw Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. The premiere took place on 24 September, during the final concert of this year’s ‘Warsaw

Photo: G. Mart (Warsaw Autumn Archive, 2011)

The premiere of Andrzej Krzanowski’s Symphony No. 1 was one of the most important events of this year’s ‘Warsaw Autumn’ festival. The piece was written 36 years ago, at the end of the avantgarde era, and until now it was completely unknown. Over 20 years after the death of its creator, the symphony has raised much emotion and confirmed his exceptional talent.

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra performing Andrzej Krzanowski’s Symphony No. 1, ‘Warsaw Autumn’ 2011

Autumn’ Festival. The concert was broadcast

by Polish Radio Channel 2.

The real highlight of the evening was a performance of a composer who died prematurely, 20 years ago, Andrzej Krzanowski’s Symphony No.1. It was his diploma composition - and it’s hard to believe; there are so many great ideas here for instrumentation, so much panache, sense of form (more than 40 minutes flew by unnoticed!). At the same time there are already elements of his later language: accordions (5!), flexatone, siren, and in general a lot of percussion ... it is regrettable that this

work was not performed for so many years (apparently someone blocked it at ‘Autumn’ in those days) and that the composer practically never returned to write for a great orchestra.”

Dorota Szwarcman, Co w duszy gra, blog, 26 Sept 2011 Transl. L. Davidson

Symphony No. 1 for orchestra (1975), 45’ 444(+3sxf)4-6442-batt (10 esec) 5acc chit el. ar 2pf cel-archi (9.0.5.5.8)

Premiere: 24 Sept 2011, Warsaw Warsaw Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, L. Vis (cond.)

Łukaszewski’s Via Crucis in Vilnius

Paweł Łukaszewski’s Via crucis for baritone, tenor, countertenor, reciter, mixed choir, orchestra and organ is a mystery of the Way of the Cross, lasting almost an hour and written to a text taken from the Bible. It consists of 14 parts symbolizing the Stations of the Cross, but the composer added a fifteenth, symbolically representing the Resurrection. It is a symbol of victory of life over death, and the piece thus gains a broader, humanist significance. The metaphorical journey of the Cross is a story reflecting the conflict of suffering, humiliation and resurrection.

The Lithuanian premiere took place on 11 September in the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Vilnius.

The piece was performed by: the Municipal Choir of Vilnius City “Jaune Muzika”, the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Robertas Šervinikas,

Photo: W. Pitak

Paweł Łukaszewski’s oratorio, Via crucis, performed in Vilnius on 11th September was a musical tribute to the victims of the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001.

Robertas Šervinikas conducting P. Łukaszewski’s Via Crucis, Vilnius, 11th Sept 2011

Kaunas Dance Theatre “Aura” and soloists: Piotr Olech (countertenor), Edmundas Seilius (tenor), Nerijus Masevičius (baritone), Valdas Bagdonas (reciter). The concert took place as part of an international charity project Pax et Bonum 2011. The organisers of the concert were the Polish Institute in Vilnius, the “Pax et Bonum” organisation and the U.S. Embassy in Vilnius.

Via Crucis for countertenor, tenor, baritone, reciter, mixed choir, organ & orchestra (1999), 60’ CT T Bar. soli-Rec-coro misto-1111-4031-batt (5esec) org-archi

Premiere: 8 March 2002, Białystok P. Olech, K. Szmyt, W. Gierlach, K. Kolberger, Cantica Cantamus Choir, V. Bielecka (cond.), Białystok Philharmonic Orchestra, P. Wajrak (cond.)

Transl. L. Davidson

quarta • October 2011

13

{ newCDreleases } Paweł Mykietyn The Passion According to St. Mark U. Kryger, K. Moś, M. Stuhr, Cantores Minores Wratislavienses, AUKSO Orchestra, M. Moś (cond.)

Narodowy Instytut Audiowizualny, 2011 2 SACD Made in Poland K. Penderecki – String Quartet No. 1; K. Serocki – Fantasmagoria; W. Lutosławski – Chain No. 1; P. Szymański – Appendix; H.M. Górecki – Kleines Requiem für eine Polka; P. Mykietyn – 3 for 13; A. Zubel – Cascando musicFabrik; Ensemble Recherche; Ensemble Intercontemporain; London Sinfonietta; Asko/Schönberg; Ensemble Modern; Klangforum Wien Narodowy Instytut Audiowizualny, 2011 DVD, Blu-Ray, 3D

{ news }

Symphony No. 3 by Mykietyn Inaugurated the Polish Presidency of the EU Council

Photo: M. Oliva-Soto / NInA archive

Ludomir Różycki Ballade Op. 18; Piano Concerto No. 1 Op. 43 K. Makowska-Ławrynowicz (piano), Orchestra of the Polish Radio & Television in Kraków, S. Kawalla (cond.), A. Straszyński (cond.)

Acte Préalable AP0217, 2011 Ludomir Różycki Violin Concerto Op. 70; Two Melodies Op. 5; Two Nocturnes Op. 30; Transcriptions from the ballet “Pan Twardowski” Op. 45 E. Nowicka (violin), PNRSO, Z. Rychert (cond.), P. Lazar (piano), M. Krężlewski (piano) Acte Préalable AP0219, 2011

Juliusz Łuciuk Gesang am Brunnen B. Harasimowicz-Haas (soprano), J. Laszczkowski (tenore), J. Borowski (baritone), J.M. Florencio (cond.)

Acte Préalable AP0240, 2011 Poland Abroad: String Quartets Joachim Mendelson – String Quartet No. 1; Roman Padlewski – String Quartet No. 2; Szymon Laks – String Quartet No. 5 Silesian String Quartet Eda Records EDA 34, 2010 Karol Szymanowski Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 Warsaw Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, A. Wit (cond.)

NAXOS NBD0021, 2011 Blu-Ray Audio

Aleksander Tansman Clarinet Concerto; Concertino for oboe, clarinet and strings; 6 Movements for strings J.-M. Fessard (clarinet), L. Decker (oboe), Silesian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, M.J. Błaszczyk (cond.)

NAXOS 8.572402, 2011 Karol Szymanowski Complete Violin and Piano Works [2 CDs] S. Tomasik (violin), R. Morawski (piano) Polskie Radio PRCD 136061, 2011

14

Champagne was uncorked, and the boundaries between classical music and entertainment blurred. The first performance of Symphony No. 3 by Mykietyn on 1st July in the Warsaw Philharmonic inaugurated the Polish presidency of the Council of the European Union.

“There will be no room for pathos caused

by Poland taking the presidency. This work will also have nothing to do with musical jokes; it presents a sort of ‘urban jungle’. Music is an abstract discipline, hard to describe, but this is probably an accurate term,” said Paweł Mykietyn before the premiere. “The assumption that academic music is something inherently better than the music played by amateurs does not hold true. Important for me was the attempt to blur the boundary between academic music and youth music,” he emphasised in interviews.

The Third Symphony, for alto and orchestra, was composed to commission from the National Audiovisual Institute under the Cultural Programme for the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

In the musical layer, the composer used various means taken from youth music of various genres such as hip-hop and club music, although without the use of electronics - all the effects are made by the orchestral instruments. The solo vocal part was written to text by young actor Mateusz Kościukiewicz.

“I spent a long time looking for a literary layer,” said the composer. “I already had a musical outline of the piece, but I needed text. [...]

Mateusz’s texts proved to be ideal: they are poetry, but draw heavily on the colloquial speech that we use today, which we hear on

quarta • October 2011

Photo: M. Oliva-Soto / NInA archive

Koszewski - Szeligowski - Panufnik Piano Trios Poznań Piano Trio Acte Préalable AP0243, 2011

Paweł Mykietyn and Mateusz Kościukiewicz

the street. And there is nothing vulgar, bombastic, pompous about that. This text has quickly become very close to me.”

Inspired by ‘youth’ and ‘entertainment’ music, a serious and intriguing piece came into being. “This is one of the strongest and most courageous voices in Polish music of recent years,” says Tomasz Cyz in “Dwutygodnik”.

The premiere took place on 1 July in the Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall. Warsaw Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra performed under the direction of Reinbert de Leeuw. Jadwiga Rappé performed the solo part.

Transl. L. Davidson Symphony No. 3 for alto and orchestra (2011), 50’ 3021-2220-batt (8esec: batt I - timp; batt II - bg, tmb, cmplli, bl di legno, kalimba, ptti, gg, cmp, tmt, flxt, macchina dal vento; batt III - tomt, gr.c., xlf, almglocken, scretching, trgl, tubi di ferro, conga, champagne)-archi

Text: M. Kościukiewicz Premiere: 1 July 2011, Warsaw J. Rappé (alto), Warsaw Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, R. de Leeuw (cond.)

{ newpublications }  Selected

Sheet Music Editions

Grażyna BACEWICZ (1909-1969) String Quartet No. 3 score + parts Cat. no. 10263 Jerzy BAUER (b. 1936) Zaśpiew z gór [Chant from the Mountains] for young cellists Cat. no. 11216 Antoni COFALIK (ed.)

Favourite Studies for violin Cat. no. 11184 Dezyderiusz DANCZOWSKI (1891-1950) Miniatures for violoncello & piano Cat. no. 11156 Andrzej DUTKIEWICZ (b. 1942) Danse Triste for alto saxophone & piano Cat. no. 11103 Paweł ŁUKASZEWSKI (b. 1968) Small Concertinos for violoncello & piano Cat. no. 11165 Marta PTASZYŃSKA (b. 1943) Elegia in memoriam John Paul II for viola solo Cat. no. 11215 Edward PAŁŁASZ (b. 1936) Jewish Lullabies for soprano & piano Cat. no. 11210

The Complete Works of Henryk Wieniawski With respect to his biography and his artistic work, the outstanding violinist, composer and teacher Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880) belongs to both Polish and European musical culture. As was characteristic of many nineteenth-century composers, Henryk Wieniawski’s career as a composer was intertwined with his career as a performing artist. He achieved success in both domains, but was perceived above all as a virtuoso violinist: firstly as a Wunderkind, and later as a fascinating soloist and chamber musician appearing in many parts of Europe and North America, ranked among the greatest of his times. Due to historical circumstances, his compositional legacy has become dispersed, and is often less than freely accessible. It is only partially familiar to us today, and often through editions incommensurate with modern-day standards. Not only is it fitting that the Wieniawski legacy be safeguarded by the composer’s native culture, this culture has a duty to tend to this legacy.

The Complete Works of Henryk Wieniawski (CWHW) is being published jointly by the Henryk Wieniawski Music Society and PWM Edition. The

Romuald TWARDOWSKI (b. 1930) Concerto for Violin & String Orchestra piano red.

Cat. no. 11188 NEW DOWNLOADS

Jerzy BAUER (b. 1936) Sonata in one movement for violoncello & piano Cat. no. 11096

 New

books

Encyclopedia of Music PWM: Wieniawski From Legend to Competition (special edition) 74 pp., A4, softback ISBN 978-83-224-0928-2 [Pol.] Cat. no. 20712 Jacek DELONG My, saksofon [We, saxophone] 136 pp., B5, hardback ISBN 978-83-224-0925-1 [Pol.] Cat. no. 20705 Marek STRASZ Grać pierwszy fortepian. Rozmowy z Adamem Makowiczem [To play the first piano. Conversations with A. Makowicz] 152 pp., A5, softback ISBN 978-83-224-0927-5 [Pol.] Cat. no. 20711

Works will encompass the entire extant compositional legacy of Henryk Wieniawski all the music he ever wrote, from works to sketches and fragments. The publishers and the editorial board aim to produce a document of the authentic source texts of compositions, meeting current standards for collective editions that serve both scholarly research and musical practice.

The collection will comprise 33 volumes. The compositions have been grouped into two series: pieces with opus numbers (Series A), and works without opus numbers and the transcription added by H. Wieniawski (Series B). 11 volumes have been published to date: • Capriccio-Valse for violin and piano, Op. 7 • Études-Caprices for 2 violins, Op. 18 • Fantaisie brillante for violin and piano, Op. 20 • Fantaisie brillante for violin and orchestra, Op. 20 • Le Carnaval russe for violin and piano, Op. 11 • L’École moderne Études-Caprices for violin solo, Op. 10 • Légende for violin and orchestra, Op. 17 • Légende for violin and piano, Op. 17 • Romance sans paroles et Rondo élégant for violin and piano, Op. 9 • 2me Polonaise brillante for violin and piano, Op. 21 • Scherzo-Tarantelle for violin and piano, Op. 16

quarta • October 2011

{ newCDreleases } Maciej Zieliński Across the Millenniums Musica per archi A.D. 1993; Lutosławski in memoriam; Trio for M.B.; Shining II; Concerto Inquieto A. Pachlewski, T. Strahl, Polish Radio Orchestra, Ł. Borowicz (cond.), M. Nałęcz-Niesiołowski (cond.), Trio Consonare per Varsovia, Duo T. Wojnowicz & G. Gorczyca Polish Radio PRCD1435, 2011 Grażyna Bacewicz Violin Concertos Nos. 2, 4, and 5 J. Kurkowicz, Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Ł. Borowicz (cond.)

Chandos CHAN 10673, 2011

Penderecki. Markowski. Awangarda Krzysztof Penderecki Psalms of David; Strophes; Anaklasis; Dimensions of Time and Silence; Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima; Fluorescences; Polymorphia Z. Stachurska (soprano), F. Delekta (reciting voice), Warsaw Philharmonic Choir, Silesian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, A. Markowski (cond.)

Polskie Nagrania PNCD 1373, 2011 Roman Maciejewski Complete Piano Mazurkas [2CDs] A. Brożek Sarton 003-4-2, 2011

Piotr Moss Meditation und Psalm; Voyage; Cinq tableaux de Caspar David Friedrich Polish Radio Choir in Kraków, PNRSO, M. Klauza (cond.), A. Sikorzak-Olek (harp), G. Strzeszewska (harp) DUX 0820, 2011 Wanda Wiłkomirska Maestra [2CDs] Johannes Brahms – Sonatas for violin & piano W. Wiłkomirska, T. Chmielewski, rec. 1974 Grażyna Bacewicz Violin Concerto No. 5 – W. Wiłkomirska, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, W. Rowicki (cond.), rec. 1955; Violin Concerto No. 7 – W. Wiłkomirska, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, A. Markowski (cond.), rec. 1979 Andrzej Panufnik – Violin Concerto (1971) W. Wiłkomirska, Polish Chamber Orchestra, J. Maksymiuk (cond.), rec. 1979 Polskie Radio PRCD 1297-1298, 2011 In the circle of Nadia Boulanger Antoni Szałowski – Sonata for oboe & piano; Grażyna Bacewicz – Sonata for oboe & piano, Sonatina for oboe & piano, Sonata da camera; Jerzy Bauer – Dualistyl M. Pawlak (oboe), B. Trojanowska (violin), E. Tyszecka (piano) Acte Préalable AP0242, 2011 Hanna Kulenty Music 4 GG Concerto; Music for Roy; Breathe; Sinequan Forte B Wrocław Philharmonic Choir, G. Isphording (cembalo), B. Koziak (cello), ‘Leopoldinum’ Chamber Orchestra, E. Kovacic (cond.)

DUX 0823, 2011

15

 Selected

Hire Titles

MIKOŁAJ GÓRECKI (B. 1971)

Divertimento for string orchestra (2009), 12’ Premiere: 12 June 2011, Poznań ‘Amadeus’ Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio, A. Duczmal (cond.)

Trinity Concerto for oboe & string orchestra (2007), 13’ Premiere: 6 Dec 2011, Warsaw A. Rojek, Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, J. Lewtak (cond.)

Zan tontemiquico (2006), 20’

Paweł Łukaszewski hosts a position of ‘Composer-inresidence’ at the Warsaw Philharmonic for the season of 2011-2012.

Photo: G. Mart (Warsaw Autumn Archive, 2011)

{ newmusic }

Aleksander Nowak Breaking News, ‘Warsaw Autumn’ 2011 ROMUALD TWARDOWSKI (B. 1930)

4343-4331-batt (3esec) cel 2ar pf-archi

Premiere: 26 March 2011, Katowice PNRSO, J.M. Florencio (cond.)

Oberek for string orchestra (1955), 2’30 Premiere: March 1956, Vilnius Lithuanian Radio Symphony Orchestra, A. Klenicki (cond.)

PAWEŁ MYKIETYN (B. 1971)

The work consists of three parts performed attacca.

Its title in the Nahuatl language means “we come here just to dream” and it is taken from a poem by the Aztec poet Tochihuitzin.“Generally speaking, the two compositions [Concerto-Notturno and Zan tontemiquico] are close to each other. The world of night and sleep is present in both works. I like that atmosphere, especially late evening, entering into another dimension, and the moment just before sunrise, the moment when this mood disappears...” [M. Górecki] WOJCIECH KILAR (B. 1932)

Requiem for Father Kolbe Theme from K. Zanussi’s film “Life for Life” (1996), 14’

Piano Concerto (1996), 22’ Premiere: 26 Sept 1997, Warsaw E. Pobłocka, Polish Radio Orchestra, W. Michniewski (cond.)

Symphony No. 3 for alto & orchestra (2011), 50’

Aforyzmy na Miłosza / Aphorisms on Miłosz (2011), 20’

Premiere: 1 July 2011, Warsaw J. Rappé, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, R. de Leeuw (cond.)

ALEKSANDER NOWAK (B. 1979)

Breaking News for symphony orchestra & synthetic voice (2011), 10’

Piano Concerto No. 2 (2011), 22’

313(+3sxf)3-4331-batt (4esec)-archi

pf solo-0000-0000-batt (2esec)-archi (8.7.6.5.4)

Premiere: 24 Sept 2011, Warsaw, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, P. Sałajczyk (keyboard), L. Vis (cond.)

“Kilar began to write it in 2010 and finished it a few months ago. This was the time when the Smoleńsk disaster happened and these events must have had an impact on his work. The composer doesn’t deny this.

The piece begins with a pathetic funeral march. In the middle part contemplative moments, characteristic to Kilar, predominate. The ending is rather in a joyful spirit.” [ J. Wnuk-Nazar]

AGATA ZUBEL (B. 1978)

3021-2220-batt (8esec)-archi

0000-0000-timp ar cel pf-archi

Premiere: 14 Oct 2011, Katowice B. Bilińska, PNRSO, J. Kaspszyk (cond.)

Lithuania for string orchestra (2011), 7’ Premiere: 26 June 2011, Warsaw Warsaw Camerata, P. Kos-Nowicki (cond.)

pf solo-3333-0330-batt (3esec) ar-archi

“To some extent the spirit of the times is revealed by the recent news. The composition Breaking News for symphony orchestra and synthetic voice uses a selection of last year’s headlines. The choice of headlines and the processes to which the textual and musical material has been subjected can be understood as a commentary on the current reality.” [A. Nowak] Work commissioned by ‘Warsaw Autumn’ International Festival of Contemporary Music.

S solo-101(+cl.b)0-0100-batt (2 esec) acc-archi (1.1.1.1.1)

Premiere: 15 Sept 2011, Kraków A. Zubel, Klangforum Wien, C. Power (cond.)

 Stage Works ZYGMUNT KRAUZE (B. 1938)

Pułapka / The Trap Opera in 1 act (2011), 100’ libretto based on the play by T. Różewicz: G. Jarzyna, Z. Krauze Premiere: 17 Dec 2011, Wrocław Opera T. Szreder (cond.)

ELŻBIETA SIKORA (B. 1943)

Madame Curie Opera in 3 acts (2011) libretto: A. Miklaszewska, E. Sikora Premiere: 15 Nov 2011 (fragm.), Paris; 25 Nov 2011, Baltic Opera, Gdańsk W. Michniewski (cond.)

PAWEŁ ŁUKASZEWSKI (B. 1968)

Missa de Maria a Magdala for solo voices, choir, organ & orchestra (2010), 45’ S Bar solo-coro misto-1100-2230-timp batt (2esec) org chit-archi

Premiere: 26-27 June 2010, Bremgarten, Switzerland M. Boog (Soprano), D. Damiani (Baritone), Kirchenchor Caecilia, Suono Spirito Vokalensemble, Orchester Concerto Spirito, M. Castellini (cond.)

Check the concert calendar for Polish music at: www.pwm.com.pl

Messa per voci e fiati for mixed choir & woodwind octet or organ (2004/2005), 18’ Premieres: (ver. for choir and woodwind octet) 24 April 2006, Lublin, Choir of the Medical Academy (now Medical University) in Lublin, M. Mielko (cond.); (ver. for choir and organ) Jan 2006, London, The Holst Singers, S. Layton (cond.), P. Wingfield (organ)

If not indicated otherwise, pieces listed in Repertoire Recommendations without catalogue numbers are available on hire from PWM or from PWM Representatives.

Pieces listed with catalogue numbers (Cat. no.) have been published by PWM and most of them are continously available on sale.

PWM Edition al. Krasińskiego 11a 31-111 Kraków, Poland tel.: +48 12 422 70 44 www.pwm.com.pl

Repertoire Promotion tel.: +48 12 422 70 44 ext. 153 promotion@pwm.com.pl

Hire Department ul. Fredry 8, 00-097 Warszawa tel.: +48 22 635 35 50 fax: +48 22 826 97 80 hire@pwm.com.pl

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Full list of PWM distributors and agents available at www.pwm.com.pl/partners

Edited by Urszula Mieszkieło Layout Pracownia Register Deadline 24.09.2011